I would personally rather have a grenade I use blow beside me then having a 350 fps AEG burst me in the face from 15 ft. And I did try both :)

Nope. This was in Melville Saskatchewan, where the walls are set up solid concrete of an old abandoned hospital.

I bought some peltors soundtraps to protect myself against airbombs grenades being used inside.

I got nothing against them if they are used correcly and they are called before. Screw the "suprise"! Grenades are no suprises, they are to make people go out of hiding or coward in a corner, hands on their hears, so you can come in and shoot them.

Airbombs can injure people if badly used, one of my teamate got his hear drum blowed in an outside game. If the grenade would have been called, he would probably had time to cover his hears. Also, the grenate was trown ON him, while he was prone in tall grass... that's a no no, even with firecraker.

IMO, there's way too much of a risk of permanent hearing damage to be using home-made pyro. Indoors we've got the Tornado.. outdoors I don't think I've ever run into a situation where I NEEDED a grenade... Sure they would have been useful, but some good suppressing fire and good teamwork can clear even the most defended bunkers (+ it looks so much more epic than tossing a little grenade in)

well according to wikipedia people do call out that a grenade has been thown.

"A call is usually given upon deploying a grenade, to warn friendly forces. Some yells, such as "grenade" or "fire in the hole" are used when a grenade has been thrown in by an enemy; in any instance the purpose is to warn fellow soldiers to take cover.

In the U.S. Military, when a grenade is dropped into an enclosed space like a tunnel, room, or trench, the person dropping the grenade should yell "fire in the hole" to warn that an explosion is about to occur. Other U.S. military procedures include calling "frag out" to indicate that a fragmentation grenade has been deployed."

While I cant say I noticed the whole building shake, I sure as hell noticed when some one used a few airbomb grenades at the last game I went to down at the Mill. It certainly set off a light vibration in the floor (As It went off on the floor below me somewhere, possibly even two down).

Certainly made me glad I was not in the same room with them. The small ones that were being tossed around did their job quite well enough (when they went off) as I can attest to having been naded in a room with one (Almost made it out in time... by running right into crossfire going both ways, but at least I got the bastard that threw it in! :D )

I dont recall them calling out grenade either, just the delay from when he poped up first and I shot at him and then poped up again told me he was gonna throw one since I knew they were being used.

I can also understand why people use them. I've been eyeing the AI grenades, but god damn I just cant justifiy over $100 a pop at the moment, even if they are reuseable.

The AI grenade is not suitable for large, dark and derelic building that has a lot of trash and holes on the ground.

I'd hate to toss it in a hole and never find it again.

Disposable frags are the way to go IMO. Especially for outside.

Well it seems a few trends are emerging here.

Explosive pryrotechnics are mostly frowned upon. In some cases when used by game admins to produce a battlefield effect it's OK by all and sundry. In cases when someone tosses a dixie cup of gunpowder out blind they're begging to have their balls kicked up to their chin.

Gas powered grenade sims are more acceptable but too expensive right now for most for something that gets tossed and could get lost. Also no one wants to be clouted in the head though by a couple pounds of alloy even if it has a little rubber sleeve. Indoors the noise generator types are not popular on the catching team as what would be considered a safe distance from the sound can't be achieved in a confined room. If some one's got them though they'll be tossing them regardless of the chance of injury.

Guys that throw sticks, rocks or handfulls of BBs can be ignored.

So to sum up;

Stuff that makes a makes a fire and bang should be avoided. Pyro used in movies etc follows a rigid safety procedure that won't transfer well the the fluid and random typical game. Just because you've built a bunch of ones that worked doesn't mean the next one won't take one of your fingers or burn the skin off your arm. When used by a game admin in safe and staged way it may be OK but it's not something you'll learn how to do safey by watching Mythbusters.

Frag and noise simulators when used in a game need to be discussed prior to the game so all players are aware and the MED and other safety rules can be cleared up before the red mist goes up. Something similar to what folks agree on for shower shells.

Letting your team know you're tossing by yelling grenade will make sure they don't walk into the explosion, and it can scare the folks on the other end into giving up ground. Right after you throw you should assault.

YouTube - Airsoft CQB In Melville

Here's video of the pyro grenades going off..

skip to 5:30, You can see how everyone is in the spawn room (I'm the guy in the skull painted mesh mask)

I still have hearing damage from that.. Every once in a while my ears will just start ringing.

Home made pyro = no thanks.

Dizie cup of gunpowder? Sheesh, I'd be more worried about the fumes of it going off than the "poof!" of the gun powder making.

I agree with Amos to a point, the airbombs shouldn't be used indoors at all, they are far too loud. Outdoors is totaly fine though and quite fun without any risk. And overall I find way too many softies around complaining "What it if goes off under a player's ass?"...... well, situational awareness is a good skill to have, and is required in this game of airsoft that we play. We deal with more dangerous toys regularly, upgraded AEGs and such, than anything an airbomb charge can do (a local guy had an airbomb grenade go off in his hand last year, his hand was numb for about 30mins, but he was still able to do well at his TKD tournament that evening) I'd be more trusting of an airbomb spraying me with BBs/dry peas than an AEG shooting me same distance.

When I had my hand in designing these things, we'd set up foil pie tin plates around the grenade in the snow and check for penetration of the dry peas through them, and while there were a couple penetrations, for the most part all we found were just mild dents, so if something will barely go through a piece of thick aluminum foil at a distance of 1 foot............ and the blast did make a couple fall over.............. overall a non-issue really. As I said, indoors for concussion, they shouldn't be used at all. Outdoors, go for it. If you don't want one of these going off anywhere near you while outdoors, I really hope you wear eye protection when you play badminton too, aand maybe laser tag is too painful for you as well.

Small firecracker inside are enough. With the echo, they are loud enough. In a small room, they are quite potent.

+1 to that. The same fella who had one go off in his hand here in ottawa tossed an airbomb around a corner at the mill with out announcing it , it detonates next to a teammate and i my left ear is till somewaht numb on occasion. Oh and he proceeded to point blank (less that 3 feet away) both of us with a pistol. Not whining just the guy has been a problem with explosives and exhibiting generally assine and immature behaviour when dealing with pyro.
my 2 cents

For every guy who's saying it's only XX firecrackers in a casing there are just as many trying to get mother nature to piss her pantsuit.

Happy to cut open fireworks and so on to give it a few more spoonfulls of powder untill they get knicknamed Joey 7 fingers. Or they wind up popping someone's eardrum or giving them flashburns.

hehe BW2 i wasent even there but when the windsor guy told me bout the nade that they threw annd how much shit went down i made them blow me up while i was in a building.... it was right a t my foot when it went off... BARELY made my right ear ring and i was right there.... out side yea why not as long as you dont start a fire.....

FK HIT...


these are the toliet paper tubes with tinfoil and peas??? yea id get some more for outdoos in a heart beat... these AI nades (i know they are not for outdoors) but the timer is way off... even for the DD kit...(also not loud enough for 14 bucks +ship...

I can see how the airbomb nades can be nasty inside and shouldn't be used, but I don't see them as a problem outside. I had one one of the Warmonger grenades land a couple of feet beside me (friendly fire at that - thrown, hit a branch, bounced back and landed beside me) while I was prone on the ground. I suffered no hearing effects and the peas didn't even hit me.

As for inside, I don't see small firecracker-based nades as being a problem. And I really don't think that it's necessary to call out the grenades indoors beyond a "fire in the hole" warning to your own teammates when tossing one in a room. I can't see such small nades being hazardous in any way.